


Year 1 Claudia's Savior

by Sandra_Bell



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-16
Updated: 2014-08-12
Packaged: 2018-01-09 00:00:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 22,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1139047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sandra_Bell/pseuds/Sandra_Bell
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Claudia Potter is the Girl-Who-Lived, and when she runs away to find out who her mother was, she runs into Severus Snape and he takes her in. This is the story about how she goes through her first year of school and finds out who her family is and there past. What will she discover in her adventure?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Ok this is my first story that I have ever posted on here so PLEASE BE NICE!!!! Thanks for taking the time to read this and hope you like it.

"Wake up!" The rasping came from the door the girl's aunt was pounding on.

The eleven-year-old opened her black flaked green eyes tiredly and looked towards the door. She stretched as best as she could in the small space and grabbed her broken glasses, making her way out of the broom closet that was her room. She tied her black and red hair back with a piece of green ribbon that she took from the attic, revealed her lightning bolt scar on her forehead. Her life was a very tired some life, from cooking to cleaning and then rarely getting anything in return.

"Claudia, get in here and start making breakfast!" Her aunt screeched.

"Yes, Aunt Petunia." She called back to her rolling her eyes at the dramatic tone her aunt made everything seem.

She made her way into the kitchen where her aunt was sitting at the table reading the paper with her coffee as Claudia made her way to the pantry to receive what she would need to cook breakfast. Soon after she started, her uncle and cousin walked into the room as well and sat down at the table just as she put down their plates in front of them. She walked back to the stove and counters to clean up.

"Daddy, my bacon isn't crispy enough." Dudley wined.

Claudia rolled her eyes while she was faced away from them and then started on a new batch of bacon for him. She replaced the old batch with the new and was about to throw it away when her uncle spoke up.

"Oh no, don't go wasting money like that. You eat it and be grateful, for that's all you are getting for today."

"Yes, Uncle," Claudia said to him.

She sat down at the table and ate the bacon while putting the last of her plans together in her head. It was not going to be the only meal that she was going to get that day, it was going to be the last meal that she would get in that house. The day before, when her aunt sent her up to the attic to clean, she found a photo album with an address of where her mother and aunt were from. She snuck the album down to her room and hid it under her bed.

She had everything ready to leave for that day. While her family went out today and leaving her alone, she would take the money in the jar and her bag that she fixed that was Dudley's with some food and the album inside, she would leave and go to King's Cross Station and head to Cokeworth to see where her mother was from and from there make herself a new life somehow. She figured that with all the training she did from cleaning and cooking, she would be able to find work for a family. She had been dreaming of this day for a long time to finally find out who she was.

"Have you been listening?" Her aunt broke through her thoughts.

"What?" She said a little dazed.

"I said, if this house is not clean by the time one of us comes home you will be sleeping outside. Do I make myself clear?" She said leaning into her face.

"Yes, ma'am," Claudia said acting like she was scared. She didn't want them finding out about her plans now did she.

"Good." Her aunt leaned away and finished her breakfast.

After everyone was done, Aunt Petunia kissed her husband goodbye as he got in his car and drove away to work. She then took Dudley with her in down the street to the bus stop to go to town. After about twenty minutes, Claudia climbed up to the top of the refrigerator and pulled down the jar. She pulled out all the money from the jar placing it on the counter and started to count it out to see if she would have enough to get to where she was going. Her aunt taught her how to count money, so she could send her to get some things from the store down the street and made sure she would bring back the right change. She had counted out 184.83 pounds and figured that it would be enough for a one way to get there. She didn't know how much a ticket cost, so she figured she would take it all.

She ran to her room and started to pack up her bag then ran to the door and made sure that none of her family members were there ready to catch her in the act. When she saw no one, she ran out the door and over to the bus stop. After a few minutes, the bus that would take her to King's Cross Station. She paid the driver, who was looking at her like she was too young to be on the bus alone and was worried for her safety, for the ticket to get to the station and picked a seat in the very back of the bus.

After about twenty-six minutes, they stopped at another bus stop and on came Aunt Petunia and Dudley. She saw them and tried to make herself as small as possible in the seat. They took a seat up front and never took notice of her. Once they entered London, she felt like she would make it. The bus soon stopped at a station before King's Cross and her aunt and cousin got off; she felt so relieved. The next stop that they got to was her stop and she bolted out of the bus and into the station. She let go a sigh of relief that she was holding and walked up to the ticket station.

"May I help you?" The lady at the booth asked her. She had a kind smile on her that she really liked.

"Yes," Claudia said, "I would like a one-way ticket to Cokeworth, please." The lady punched out the ticket and handed it to her.

"That will be 38.46 pounds, please." The lady told her.

Claudia handed her the money and took her ticket to gate seven to wait for her train. After about half an hour, her train arrived and she got on. As she found a seat by the window, she saw police swarm the station along with her aunt, uncle, and cousin with them. The train started to move as they were all searching the station. She couldn't believe that she actually escaped her family-no, her tormenters, for good. She leaned back in her seat and let out a giggle. That was something that she never did and she liked it. There was nothing that they could do now.

After about ten hours, the train stopped at her station and she got out onto the new land. She looked around at the new surrounding like it would be her last time. The trees were a lush green along with the grass, but since the sun was down, it looked like a golden field. The birds sang above her in the air and trees; the flowers on the hills were so beautiful to look at one could get lost in their beauty for hours. The homes were like little cottages with two to three chimneys of a small village and the park was made of all wood and rope. She looked around the place and then at her clothes; her black shorts hung down from her and her grey shirt almost covering her shorts; the shoes that she wore almost sliding off of her feet. She looked like a homeless kid compared to the beauty of the town, but in honesty, she was a homeless kid now.

She felt sad at this fact but started walking to the home that she knew belonged to her mother. She walked through the town and people were looking at her and directing their kids away from her. She really felt hurt from this but kept her head high. She soon came up to the house that was her mother's. It was a beautiful two-story home with a small flower garden in front of the house. She could see through the window, a family of four sitting down for dinner. She looked at them and saw how happy they were in that home and tears started to leak from her eyes. Her only wish was to have a family that would love her like that. After seeing this family in her mother's home, she ran away to the park that she passed as the tears flew from her eyes.

As she was running, she ran into the black pant legs of someone who wrapped arms, covered in a black wool material, around her in attempt to stop her, "Woe, calm down, child." The person above her said.

She looked up into black eyes that were framed by black hair. The man was very tall and muscular with pale skin and a nose that looks like it was broken at least once in his life.

"I-I'm so-sor-sorry, sir." She choked out.

"What's wrong little one?" The man asked.

"It-it's ha-har-hard to-to ex-expl-explain." She cried out.

The man knelt down to her high and looked into her eyes.

He then looked at her clothes and back up at her, "Do you have a place to stay, little one?" He asked in a soft voice.

"The park." She answered looking down at his black shoes.

He shook his head and looked at her, "Not tonight." He said as he got up from his spot.

She looked up in confusion as tears streamed from her eyes. He took her hand and led her down the street to another house that looked like the one that she ran away from. They walked into the front door and into what she found out was the kitchen. He led her to the counter and lifted her up before he walked out of the room to get something.

Claudia looked around the room as he was gone and saw that the room was an older looking kitchen. A stone fireplace sat at the far right of her and a sink with two different pumps that were different in shade, one a light grey and the other a dark grey, sat next to her. A small wooden table sat in the center of the room with four chairs around it, and the wooden cabinets and drawers sat above and under the stone counter that she sat on. The stove was an opening above the fireplace where a vent was in the back to let the smoke out to the top, and a wooden looking standing chest sat at the far corner of the room by the door which the man walked through coming back into the kitchen.

The man walked over to her with a long white dress shirt that looked like it would fit over her small frame. He handed it to her and turned around so she could change in peace. She changed into the shirt as fast as she could and then tapped the man on the shoulder to let him know that she was done. When he turned around, he took her old close and walked over to the fireplace and threw them in. He then turned around to face her and saw that she was picking at the buttons of the shirt. He could tell something was wrong with her and so he walked back over to her.

She looked up when his shadow fell over her and saw him looking down at her. He lifted her up from the counter and led her into another room across from the kitchen. She found out, once she walked into the room, that it was a sitting room. The room had a comfortable feel to it with another fireplace, two chairs and a couch, two round tables sitting next to the chairs and a coffee table in front of the couch, and bookcases lining the rest of the walls except the wall directly in front of them with two long windows with window seats. There were small pictures lining the mantle of the fireplace along with- wait did that one picture just move? She looked at him and then back at the fireplace. All of the pictures look like they changed to be looking at them.

"I will explain." He said sitting in one of the chairs and pulled her into his lap. "I guess we should start with names first. My name is Severus Snape, but you may call me Severus."

"Claudia, Claudia Potter." She told him quietly. He looked at her and his eyes widened at the name.

She looked at him with confusion, "Is something wrong?" She asked a little scared.

He shook his head a little, "No, no it's just that I knew your mother. We were good friends when we were younger."

"What do you mean were?" She asked him.

"Your mother died a long time ago." He told her sadly.

"I know, but you can still be friends. She's not gone completely. You still have the memories of the two of you together. She's never truly gone from you." Claudia told him looking up into his eyes. He looked down at her as tears formed in his eyes. He held her close to him as he blinked back the tears that were threatening to fall from his eyes. She looked up at him and him down at her.

"You're right." He told her. "I want to tell you everything about her that I know, but first, how much do you know about your past and where you come from?"

"I know that my parents died in a car crash."

"What, who told you that?" He asked a little angry.

"Aunt Petunia did." She said a little scared that she would get in trouble.

"You're not in trouble, my little one." He told her. "Why are you not with her now, may I ask."

"I ran away from them and they found out all called the police." She said looking down at her hands.

"How did you get the money to come here?"

"I took it from them from their money jar, the rest is in my bag." Severus smiled as if he understood.

"Claudia, I want to show you something, but you must promise not to be scared and let me finish explaining, alright?"

Claudia nodded her head in understanding. Severus pulled out a stick and showed it to her. She looked a little confused until red sparks flew out of it and around the room. She was so astonished by what was going on that she didn't see his face light up for what he was doing. The sparks then flew over to her and into her face. She leaned back as they just hovered in front of her face when they started to change color and shape in front of her. She giggled at the sparks and looked up at Severus. He looked at her and smiled down at her. She was a real blessing to have around. Why would she ever run away? What happened to her while she was with her aunt and uncle?

"Little one, why did you run away from your family?" He asked her.

Claudia looked away and answered, "They never loved me."

"Now, that can't be true. You are a real blessing to have."

She looked up at him with hope in her eyes, "You really think so?"

"Of course I do." He said and held her close to him.

"Have you eaten today?"

"Yes, some bacon that my cousin didn't want."

"Is that all?" He asked a little astonished.

"That was all I was allowed." She said looked up at him.

Severus lifted her up and took her back into the kitchen where he sat her in one of the chairs. Her little feet hung down and swayed. He looked at her with a smile on his face and shook his head, his hair flying back and forth. He walked over to a door off to the left that she didn't see her first time in the room and came back with an arm full of vegetables.

"How does soup sound. It usually gets cold here and something warm might make you feel better."

She nodded her head at the idea and then looked at him, "I never had someone cook for me before." She told him.

"What do you mean?" He asked, turning around from putting the vegetables on the counter.

"I always cooked for my relatives all of the time, ever since I was young enough to walk."

Severus looked at her at this and walked over to her. He knelt down and looked her in the eyes, "Claudia, I want to do something, but I want to make sure you are alright with what I am about to do."

"What is it?" She asked a little worried.

"I want you to let me see into your mind to see what they did to you, will you let me?"

Claudia thought about it for a minute and then nodded her head hesitantly to let him do it. He put his index fingers on her temples and looked into her mind at the memories. He saw what happened ever since she could remember. He saw Petunia looking like a skinny horse throwing a frying pan at her head and just grazing her, a whale like of a man throwing her into a broom closet where a mattress sat on the floor with a thin blanket lying on top. He saw a smaller version of her uncle tripping her down the stairs and almost breaking a vase that she caught. He then saw her plan that she accomplished and the photo album that she had taken with her in her bag. He would take a look at it later once he was done looking into her mind.

He then saw all of the accidental magic that she did. From appearing up to the top of the schoolhouse roof to changing her teacher's hair blue. There was much more and these were the ones that he would keep to himself. This was a proud moment in a parent's life for a wizard or witch to do magic for the first time and since he never had kids of his own, he would keep these as if he were her parent and now he knew what it was like to experience this. He took his hands away after he saw all that he needed to see and looked back at her. She looked up at him a little worried and he just smiled.

"I promise you, I will never send you back to those people as long as I live." He said running his fingers through her hair. She threw her arms around him and held on tight like he would disappear if she let go. Severus wrapped his arms around her and held on tight to her.

Severus moved away to look at her and smiled, "I will never let anything happen to you, ever." Tears fell from her eyes and he wiped them away. He stood back up and walked over to the counter. He looked over his shoulder at her and smiled when he saw her looking at him.

"Would you like to help me?" He asked turning back to the cutting that he started to do.

"I would love to." She told him as she got up from the chair that she was sitting in.

He pulled out his wand and summoned a stool over for her to stand on next to him over the sink.

"You can clean the vegetables and I'll cut them." He said with a smile on his face. She walked over and climbed up onto the stool. Severus looked down at her and for the first time saw how small she was. She's supposed to be ten-years-old and she looks to be about five maybe six.

"Claudia, how much did your relatives feed you while you were living with them?"

She looked up at him from the sink, "About three time a week. Sometimes if I'm in trouble I wouldn't get food for a week to a month, just water to keep me doing my work."

"Hmmm," He said in thought, "What kind of work did they make you do?"

"Well," She said looking back at the sink with the warm water and vegetables were in, "I cooked, cleaned, did the clothes, paint the house whenever it needed it, served for other family members, stayed locked up in my room whenever we had guest, I worked in the garden, the yard, and I think that's it." She told him and then looked up at him. He looked down at her in astonishment and anger at what they made her do.

"Is something wrong?" She asked a little worried.

"Yes, something is wrong, but not to you, what your relatives did to you and made you do." He said to her. "Tomorrow, I'm going to go see them and set them straight. You will never see them ever again."

He turned back to the vegetables before him and started to cut them again. She turned back to the sink and smiled a little thinking about never having to go back to them ever again and that they would get to know how she felt. After a while, while the soup was simmering in the kettle over the fire, Claudia and Severus were sitting at the table talking and getting to know each other. She was told all about the school that she would be going to and everything that she would even know about going to Hogwarts. Severus even went and got his Hogwarts: A History for her to read so that she was all set up for knowing everything there was for her to get ready for school and to also help her better know who she is. He would take her to Hogwarts tomorrow and ask McGonagall to watch her as he talked with Dumbledore about her relatives and then go talk with them.

He walked over to the fireplace and stirred the kettle when Claudia spoke up, "What will happen to me since I'm not going to live with my relatives?"

She was a little worried about not going to stay with Severus. She really wanted to be with him and find out more about her life and about her parents. He turned to look at her once he was done stirring the soup and sat back down at the table.

He looked her in the eyes and said, "I will keep you until you find someone who wants to take you and will treat you right, but later on if you want, you can stay with me."

Her eyes lit up when he said the last part and she smiled with so much joy that she looked like she could light up the night sky with her happiest. Severus smiled at her and then walked back over to the kettle. He took two bowls and filled them up, taking them back over to their spot. He summoned two spoons over to them and then handed one over to her. She was amazed at the amount of magic he could do and wanted to learn as much as he knew.

After dinner, Severus took her to the sitting room and walked over to one of the bookshelves across the room from them. He pulled on a snake statue that swung the bookcase back revealing a staircase leading up. He took her hand and led her upstairs to a hallway with double doors at the end. He led her to the end of the hall and opened the double doors at the end of the hall and moved away so she could see. She walked into the room in awe at the sight of everything.

The walls were lined with bookcases with a fireplace on the left-hand wall in between two dark black doors. There was another door on the right side of the room also in black with a dark cherry wood desk slanted in the far-right corner of the room with a matching chair behind it and two chairs in front. The windows that lined the wall directly in front of them were from the floor to the ceiling and had thick forest green curtains and thin silver curtains under them to cover them at night. More pictures lined the mantelpiece of the fireplace and a pouch sat at the right end of the mantle and a strange glow came from the opening.

She walked into the room and looked at him. He nodded his head and she continued into the room. She looked around the room and took every little detail in. She walked over to the fireplace and looked at the green bag with the silver drawstring that had the light coming out.

Severus walked over and took the bag down to show her, "This is called floo powder, you throw a pinch in and the fire will turn green, then you step in and call out your destination that you want to go to. We will be using it tomorrow." He said looking at her. She looked at him in awe and then back at the powder.

He put it back where it was and then showed her the doors, "This one," he indicated to the one to the left of the fireplace, "goes to your room. The other door," the one to the right of the fireplace room, "goes to my room, and the one on the other side of the room goes to the bathroom."

He walked over to the bedroom on the left and opened the door showing her a room with a fireplace, a desk in the far right corner of the room, a full-size bed that sat in between the floor to ceiling windows that were directly in front of them with green and silver curtains, a built-in wardrobe in the far left corner connecting to the bookshelves, and the rest of the walls were covered in bookshelves.

"Why is everything in green and silver?" She asked as Severus scooped her up into his arms and took her over to the bed where he preceded to tuck her in.

"I am one of the Heads of House at the school. I run Slytherin house, where my students are considered cunning. There also made up mostly of pureblood wizards and witches."

"What do you mean pureblood?" She asked in confusion.

"Well, there are three different types of wizards; purebloods, half-bloods, and Muggle-borns. Purebloods are people who have a wizard father and a witch mother and usually all the way through the family tree to the beginning of the days. Half-bloods are wizards with a magical parent and a Muggle parent. Lastly, a Muggle-born is a wizard with both Muggle parents, most of the time, in this case, the child is abused because of their ability and the parents are afraid of what they can do. They usually want to beat the magic out of them, but they just end up killing the child in the process."

"That's terrible," Claudia said a little scared that her relatives were probably trying to do that to her.

"I know, but I will never let anything like that happen to you, I promise." He told her reassuring. She smiled at him and nodded her head.

He smiled back at her and walked over to her door before she spoke up, "Sir?"

He turned around to see her propped up on one elbow, "Yes?"

"Goodnight, sir."

He smiled at her, "Goodnight, Claudia." He turned the light out and closed the door leaving a crack open.

He walked over to his desk and pulled out a quill and parchment and proceeded to write a letter to the headmaster about what happened that day and that he would be seeing him tomorrow, he also wrote a letter to Minerva explaining as well and asking her if it would be alright to leave Claudia with her while he went and talked with her relatives. With that, he called his black barn owl, Nightingale, and handed her the letters and she flew out the window leaving Severus. Severus went to bed for the night waiting for the next day to begin. In the other room, however, Claudia didn't want to go to sleep in case this was all a dream and she would be in her broom closet again. She soon fell into a restless sleep full of nightmares of her relatives.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to the people who have liked it so far, here is chapter 2

The next morning, Severus went to wake up Claudia and he found her in a terrible state. She looked to be in immense pain and he didn't know what until he heard her talking in her sleep, "Please, Uncle, I'm sorry."

She was having a nightmare and Severus did the only thing that he could think of; he walked over briskly and sat down on her bed. He took her shoulders and shook her gently to wake her up. Her eyes opened and she grabbed onto Severus's arms like he was her lifeline. She had sweat pouring down her face and her hair stuck to her cheeks. She looked into his eyes and saw what she was doing.

She let go of him and looked scared, "I'm sorry, sir."

He shook his head with a smile, "Its fine and its Severus, not sir." She looked down with a sheepish smile on her face.

He smiled and shook his head again, "Come, breakfast will be ready soon. You can take a shower in the bathroom while I finish it up to get this sweat off."

"What about my clothes?" She asked.

"Hmmm, one moment."

He walked out of the room and soon returned with four feathers. He laid them on the bed and pointed his wand out and pointed at him; therefore, they turned into a dark green three quarter sleeved sweater, dark blue jeans, a pair of plain black knee-high socks and a pair of black flat shoes. She looked at them; then at Severus, as he walked out the door and closed it behind him. She looked at the clothes and picked up the sweater; bring it close to her, she held it close to her chest and nose taking in the scent of it. It smelled like lilies next to a running stream; granite, the whole house smelled like lilies. She shook her head to clear it and went across the study to the bathroom. 

She walked out of the rooms once she was finished and dressed, and descended the stairs to the sitting room where he was waiting by the bookcase to the left of her as she walked in. Wait, that bookshelf wasn't there before, was it? She walked over to him and he smirked at her as he pulled on another snake statue.

The bookcase moved away and led to the kitchen, "All of the snakes lead somewhere in my home. The one on the north wall least to my private potion lab, the one to the east wall leads to the sunroom and the back garden, the one to the south wall leads upstairs to the bedrooms, bathroom, and washroom, and study, as you know, and the west wall leads to the kitchen and front door."

She nodded her head as if to tell him that she understood what he was telling her. She walked with him through the doorway and into the kitchen where he proceeded to make breakfast for them. After they were done with their small meal of oatmeal and fruit, they proceeded to the sitting room where they walked upstairs to the study. He walked over to the fireplace and grabbed the floo powder from the mantle. He took a pinch and threw it into the fire where it roared up and turned green.

He looked over at Claudia and asked, "Is there anything you want to take with you?" She thought about it for a minute and then ran into the room that she was staying. Severus's looked after her when she ran out of the room, and watched as she came back with the book that he gave her to read. He looked at her and then shook his head with a smile.

"What?" She asked with a smile on her face.

He looked up at her with the smirk still on his face and said, "You remind me of your mother. She acted the same way when it came to books."

Claudia blushed a little at that and took the offered hand that he held out to her. They walked into the fire and Claudia was a little surprised that she was doing this.

She looked up at Severus and he said clearly "Hogwarts, Professor McGonagall's Office."

With that, they were gone from the house and flying through the floo network. They soon landed in another fireplace with Severus landing on his feet and Claudia stumbled a little from the sudden stop. Severus placed an arm around her torso to steady her and stand her back up with a smirk on his face from her first time.

"Severus, what a pleasure to see you." A woman's voice greeted them.

Claudia looked up and saw an older woman standing next to an old wooden desk with a red padded straight back wooden chair. Her greying auburn hair pulled tight into a bun and striking green eyes under square glasses. She wore dark green robes and stood tall, showing that she was an important person.

"Hello," Severus told the woman.

"Now, Severus, who is this young one?" She asked looking at Claudia through her glasses.

"This is Claudia Potter, the one I wrote to you about. Claudia this is Professor Minerva McGonagall, Head of Gryffindor, Assistant Headmistress, and Professor of Transfiguration."

Minerva looked at him in shock and brought a hand up to her mouth at looking at her.

"Claudia?" She asked the young girl. Claudia nodded her head at the woman, and Minerva opened her arms to her, "Come here, let me take a closer look at you."

Claudia looked at Severus and then walked over to the woman. Minerva placed her hands on Claudia's shoulder and took in her features.

"You look just like your mother and father in every way. I especially love the black hair from your father and the red highlights from your mother, you have a little of both of them in you."

"You knew my parents?" She asked softly.

"Knew them, oh, that hardly an understatement. I was there when you were born, dear. I even got to hold you and you were a tiny one at that time; I can tell you still are." She said taking her in even more. "When you're here, I'll make sure you eat enough so you can grow tall like your father."

"That's actually something I would like to talk to you about, would you mind watching her while I talk with Professor Dumbledore about her?"

"Of course, Severus." She told him. He nodded his head and walked out of the room.

She turned to look at Claudia and smiled, "So, what do you have planned for today, dear?"

Claudia shook her head as she held the book close to her. Minerva smiled at her sincerely and held out her hand, "Why don't I take you to Hogsmeade and show you around, hmm?" She asked her. Claudia looked at her with curiosity in her eyes and leaned her head to the side.

Minerva looked at her and laughed, "You look like your mother when you do that. I can tell I'm going to have fun with you."

She had some kind of glint in her eyes that made Claudia trust the woman. Claudia took the woman's hand after a while and walked with her out the door. They walked down the stairs and Claudia saw all of the wonders around her as they walked through the hallways of the big place. She saw the wonders of the castle, from ghost to the moving paintings. Even the moving stairs made her face lite up in delight. Minerva looked at her with a little sadness in her eyes at the thought of so much that she had to go through. It broke her heart to see that in that young girl; that she took everything in her life as amazement.

She took the girl down a dirt path to a small village and stopped at the gates, "Welcome to Hogsmeade."

Claudia looked around and then smiled at the woman. Minerva smiled down at her and then led her around the village. She showed her all of the things in the village and took her into every shop that there was in the whole little village. Claudia enjoyed herself not knowing what Severus was doing in the castle above them. Severus made the trudge up to Professor Dumbledore's office and to the statue.

"Lemon drop." He said disgustingly to the guardian statue as it jumped out of the doorway of the stairs that soon started to spin up. Severus walked up to the top stair and let it spin the rest of the way up to the top. Once at the top, Severus walked over to the door and knocked roughly, waiting for a reply to come to his ears.

"Come in, Severus." The old man's voice filled his ears as the door opened of its own accord.

Severus walked into the room and saw the ancient professor sitting behind his desk with the twinkle in his eyes. Severus sat in one of the chairs that were offered to him and nodded his head to the man.

"How can I help you, my boy? Would you like a lemon drop?"

"No thank you, Professor. I want to talk to you about something that has come to my attention recently."

"How recently are we talking about?" The professor asked.

"Last night, to be precise, sir. I was graced with the presence of Claudia Potter coming to my house last night crying into my clothing. I took her home with me and have found out that she was being abused at her home."

"What makes you say that?" He asked with a twinkle in his eyes.

"She let me look at her memories and I saw everything that happened to her that her relatives inflicted on her. They have broken almost every bone in her body and caused her so many bruises that I am surprised that her skin turned back to normal. Can you image how many nightmares that she has had over the course of time that she was there? She had one last night in my home, right next to me, and I never heard one sound come from her. She must have been taught that if she made any sound that she would be punished."

"I was wondering when this would happen. How much do you know about her?"

"That she came from a very abusive family probably typing to beat her magic out of her. What did you mean you were wondering when this would happen?"

"I knew Fate would bring the two of you together sooner or later. She was always meant to be with you Severus; Lily would want this."

"What do you mean?" Severus asked amazed.

"You will learn, it is not for me to tell you. Shall we go to the Dursleys?" Albus asked standing before Severus could ask any more question?

Severus nodded and followed Albus out of the office and out of the wards of Hogwarts. They apparated to No. 4 Private Drive together and walked up to the door. Severus knocked and waited for an answer. Soon a large man opened and answered the door with a smile on his face until he saw the attire they were wearing.

"Can I help you?" He said through gritted teeth.

"Yes, one we would like to come in and two we want to talk about your niece," Severus said as he pulled out his wand and moved the man away from the doorway. He walked them into the living room where the rest of the family were waiting as Severus backed the man into the couch and made him sit down. Dumbledore sat down in one of the chairs and Severus stood in the doorway and looked around the room and into the hallway.

"What do you want to know about her?" Petunia asked them as she eyed Severus wearily.

"Well for starters, why does it look like she was not even in this house in this first place? I see no pictures of her anywhere." Severus asked as he turned to look at them with his eyes blank and cold.

"We never accepted her into our family." Petunia squeaked as she knew what Severus was capable of doing. Severus looked like he was about to throw curse after curse at them for what the woman just said to him.

"We didn't know how to accept her into our family she was weird and wasn't like us what were we supposed to do; we were scared of her and I mean we tried to beat it out of her so she would be normal like the rest of the kids her age and then maybe she could be accepted into our family I mean it was just like your father and-"

"SILENCE!" Severus roared at them; he was tired of hearing her talk like that and bringing up his father only poked the sleeping bear, as the Muggles would say. Petunia fell deathly silent and started to vibrate next to her husband and her son on the floor.

"HOW DARE YOU TALK TO MY WIFE LIKE THAT YOU FREAK!" Vernon yelled at the man as spit flew everywhere. Severus took out his wand again and pointed it at the large man that was starting to get up from his seat but froze at the sight of the wand. He slowly lowered himself back down onto the couch and stayed silent for the rest of the time.

"I have seen what you have done to her while she was living here with you and have come to the conclusion of one thing; I will be taking her in and raising her up in a good environment that is right for her." He said as he started to walk out of the door, but turned to look at them with a smirk on his face, "You will be getting the forms from me soon and you will never see her and the money that she took from you ever again as long as she is with me. I feel that the money was rightfully hers in the first place."

He turned away from them and walked out of the house apparating back to the school with Dumbledore right behind in shock. As they arrived back, Severus was striding to the dungeons that were his home during the school year and walked into his private office. He sat down on of the couched in the room and brought his hands up to his face. He soon felt a hand on his shoulder and saw that it was Dumbledore with a sad look on his face.

"I'm so sorry, my boy. I never knew how bad it was in that house, but I had no other choice. I couldn't have brought her to you with all that was going on. Where is she now?"

"With Minerva; I asked her to watch her for me as I went to deal with that problem."

"Good for now would be a good time to make a list of everything that you will need for her in her new life.

Severus looked at him and summoned a piece of parchment and a quill, and charmed it to write whatever he said.

"Well first, she will need some new clothes since she has been wearing her cousin's old hand-me-downs. She will also need some books for her to read as she is with me and her school things since she will be starting this year. I'll also need to find out what she interested in since her birthday is coming up fast. I don't know how to do this."

"Yes, you do," Albus told him as he placed a hand on his shoulder.

Severus looked at the man and then bowed his head to look at his hands in his lap. After a while, Albus left him alone and Severus sat there thinking about all of the things that he could do for her while she was with him. A little while later, a brown barn owl flew into his quarters. He received a note from the two women inviting him to lunch at the Three Broom Sticks at noon sharp. Severus looked at his emerald eye embellished silver pocket watch and decided to head out and be there early as he usually was. He decided that he would be able to look around and see if he could find something that she may like. He took his pouch of coins that he had and his travel cloak and started to make his way down to Hogsmeade.

As he walked through the gates he saw the two women walking over to the bookstore and took long strides to make his way over to them. Once he was walking alongside them, after startling Minerva and receiving a slap on the arm, they were walking together into the store.

Minerva walked over to the novel section and was looking for something for her while Severus leaned over to Claudia and whispered into her ear, "Why don't you go and look for something that you might like."

She looked up at him with a smile on her face and her eyes lit up with glee and ran over to the fiction section of the bookstore. Severus shook his head with a smirk and walked over to the potion section and looked for the new Hidden Potions in the World book for his collection and the new Defense against Dark Spells. He soon when looking for the new child that has been living with him and found her in the section with the elegant journals; she was looking at a certain green one with the Irish Tree of Life symbol on the front.

Severus walked behind her just as she was reaching for the book and gently placed his hands onto her shoulder, making her jump into the air a little. She turned around to face him and a sheepish smile came over her face when she saw who it was. He looked down at her and smiled with a sincere smile on his face. He looked over her head just by his eyes and looked back down at her and, he saw that she didn't notice him looking at the book.

"She must like to write. I'll need to search this more and see what else I can find out about her."

"Come; let's go look for books that you might like to read. We need to fill up your bookshelves in your room."

He just said her bookshelves in her room and she liked the sound of that being told to her. She took his offered hand and he led her over to the bookshelves filled with books her age. She picked out a few adventure ones and all of the books about the history of the new world that she was in that the store had. Severus picked some out on Potions and Defense Against the Dark Arts. The other books that she would get would be her school books and those were explanatory. He really found out easily about her love for history, just like her mother and even him, which is weird since James never did like history. He figured that she got it more from her mother than anyone really.

While she was looking at the books Minerva walked over to them; Severus whispered in her ear about the green journal that she was looking at with the Irish Tree of Life on the cover and asked her to pick it up for him. He had promised to repay her later on. She nodded her head and walked over to the book that he was talking about and picked it up; hiding it from Claudia's view. After Claudia had picked out a huge pile of books, Severus laughed at the sight and made a comment about how she didn't have to buy the whole store at one and that they could come back to get other books that she may want, but he bought all of the books for her anyway and the cashier was more than happy to sell the books to them seeing as to how many she was getting. Severus paid the man who was so thrilled to sell the books and receive the money since it was the most that he had sold since he has been the owner of the shop.

After they finished, Severus called for Minerva and told her that they would be over at the Apothecary looking for new ingredients for his potions and how he needed to stock up on some that were running low at home. She waved them off and looked for more books that she could get. When Claudia turned away Minerva held up the journal as in to ask if it was the right one; Severus nodded his head to the woman and then led the girl out of the shop before she bought the entire store. They walked across the street and over to another.

Before going in, Severus turned to look at her and grabbed her shoulders, "Some of the things in here are really scary for someone your age and if you feel like you don't want to come in you can wait out here for me. I only need to get a few things in here and I will be right out."

With that in mind, Claudia looked into his eyes and told him, "Can I stay out here and wait for you? I don't really like dark things."

The way that she said dark and not scary broke his heart to see her like that. He nodded his head and walked inside. Claudia was outside for a few moments when she looked across the street and to the left a little at the store next to the bookstore. The thing in the window caught her eye and she walked over to get a better look. What caught her eye was a quill, but not just any quill; it was a green quill with a silver tip and six other tips to change it for different writing styles. It also came with its own ink and little stand for the quill to sit in. It was the most beautiful writing quill that she has ever seen.

She didn't know how long she was standing there when there was a hand placed on her shoulder. She turned around to see a man with a long flowing silver beard that he tucked into the belt of his blue robes with sparkling blue eyes that were behind half-moon glasses. He was very old and had a kind grandfather feel to him. The man smiled down at her and she smiled back up at him.

"Hello, you must be Claudia."

"Yes, sir." She answered with respect to him.

"What are you doing out here all alone?"

"Severus is in the store over there," She said pointing to the shop that she was just standing outside of, "and asked me if I would be uncomfortable going inside with all of the dark things inside so I asked to stay out here, and as I was standing out here I saw this quill set and it was just so beautiful to look at it. I've never seen anything like it." She said turning back to the quill set and looked at them longingly.

She always loved books and stories that she would hear from her cupboard under the stairs whenever her aunt would read to her cousin in the living room when they were younger. She even took old books from Dudley old room and taught herself how to read, but the day that she started school and got better grades then Dudley, she was locked into her cupboard for a week with no food and was only out to do chores and use the bathroom. She shook her head to get out of her daze and then looked back at the man standing behind her.

He was still smiling at her and then patted her head. It was the strangest feeling that she ever felt. No one has ever touched her like that. He walked away just as Severus was walking out of the shop. He was looking for Claudia and was getting worried until he saw her across the street at Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop. He was really relieved and so he walked over to her on the other side of the street and right up behind her. She saw him coming in the glass, so she turned around to look at him with a little worry in her eyes that she would be in trouble. She didn't mean to stand there for so long and was going to go back across the street before he came out, but she got so lost at looking at the quill and talking to the man that she lost track of the time.

He saw the look and gave her a reassuring smile to her. She saw the smile and returned it back to him. He looked over her head at the quill set in the window and then back down at her. She looked up at him and then just took his hand in hers. He smiled down at her and then walked back over to Gladrags Wizardwear store right as Minerva was walking out of the shop.

"Well I'm done with book shopping for now. How about we go eat before we start shopping again? We need to get you some new clothes instead of Severus using feathers to make your clothes. Not that your Transfiguration is bad it's very good, but one; you would not have clothes her size laying around your house, and two; I see the feather fluff on the sweater." Minerva said picking a little one off.

Severus looked at the woman with one eyebrow raised and a smirk on his face. Claudia looked at them and smiled a little at them. They walked over to a big cottage-like building with a small wooden sign at the door that said Three Broomstick. She smiled at the name and was led into the little place. They walked over to a table with padded benches that were close to the door. Severus and Claudia sat next to each other in the corner facing the whole place and Minerva sat across from them. Soon a young looking woman with blond wavy hair and green eyes walked over to their table.

She had a kind smile on her face which got bigger when she saw who was at the table, "Why, Severus Snape. Fancy seein' ya here, and who is this little one here?" She asked as she saw Claudia. She really liked this lady; Severus, on the other hand, was blushing at her.

"This is Claudia, Madam Rosmerta," Minerva answered.

"As in Claudia Potter?" Madam Rosmerta asked as she lowered her voice for only them to here. Minerva nodded her head and her face dropped into a sincere smile. She nodded her head at them and took their orders, all three ordering Shepard Pie. They all had an order of butterbeer, Severus very cautious about letting Claudia start drinking it and, Minerva and Madam Rosmerta part to convince him that it wasn't going to hurt her at all. They all had enjoyed lunch very well and, the trio walked out of the little pub feeling full and happy as they made their way to Gladrags Wizardwear for some regular clothing. Little did they know that a meddlesome old man was watching them from afar knowing a secret that would change everything in the war, and the outcome of the young dark-haired man and the young child with him.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to the people who have liked it so far, here is chapter 3

After all of the shopping that day, Claudia was so tired and her feet were so sore; she was practically sleepwalking. Severus noticed this, however, and he picked her up to walk her the rest of the way back up to the castle. She wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her head on his shoulder. These things that people were doing to her and for her were foreign in her eyes. No one has ever done something like this for her anytime of her life, and she didn't know how to take it. She soon feared that these people would turn her away and see that she was a freak like her relatives have told her so many times in her life.

She didn't notice that her grip had tightened onto Severus's shoulders until he wrapped his arms around her tighter as if to shield her from all of the pain that she went through in her short life.

"What's wrong, little one?" He asked softly so only she could hear. 

"Nothing, just felt like I was slipping a little is all." She told him hoping that he wouldn't see through her lie. Unfortunately, he did see through her lie but didn't call her out on it and decided to talk to her later about it once they were alone at home.

He looked ahead at the castle as the sun was setting behind it, and the stars and moon were coming out and into the purple sky. He didn't think that it would take all day to go shopping for her and she still didn't have everything on their list. Buying the clothes for her was what held them up. He didn't know how much she would need in her life, but then again she was a girl and they needed different things then boys did, he was so grateful Minerva had come with them. They walked back up to the castle with Severus carrying Claudia and, him and Minerva talking back and forth about the new school year and what to expect this year. Claudia was practically falling asleep on his shoulder from the deep rumble coming from his chest that she was pressed up against when he talked. She closed her eyes and took the feeling of Severus, her Severus, the only one that actually wanted her for who she was.

She listened to the rumble of his voice and thought long ago to a similar rumble of a voice that would sing to her at night to get her to sleep. She remembered the dark hair and the toned chest of the person. She remembered the strong arms that would hold her in her sleep when she was little and then it was gone soon enough. Was it ever real or was it all just a dream that she made up in her mind? Her eyes shot open and she held onto Severus as tight as she could until her knuckles turned white. Severus looked at her with worry, but she wouldn't meet his gaze. He just tightened his grip on her even more into his chest and shushed her into her head to calm her down. She loosened her grip on his robes and looked at him.

He looked at her questionably, and she just answered, "Bad memories is all." She then lowered her head back down onto his shoulder.

He knew there was more then what she was implying, but he didn't push it right now. He would talk to her more when they got back home. Waite, when did it start being just home and not his home when he was referring to the two of them. She was really starting to rub off on him and he only met her yesterday. Who is this girl? Maybe it was the idea that she's Lily's girl and she reminded him so much of her of everything that she did. It really did feel like Lily was back with him and it was liked he never made the mistake what so ever. They made the trip back up to McGonagall's office and Severus thanked her for watching Claudia.

"It was no problem, Severus. I was really happy to see her again. She looks so much like her mother, don't you think?"

"Yes, that's not the only thing. She acts like her too."

"Hope she's good in her classes like her mother was as well." They said their goodbyes and Severus took them home through the floo.

When they returned home, Severus brushed the soot off of them both and then took her to her room so she could get some sleep before dinner was served. He set her things on the floor and used his wand to place everything in its place. There was still a lot of open space on her bookshelves; not even all of the books that they bought filled one bookcase. As she was sleeping right now, Severus walked over to her bag and pulled out the photo album that she brought with her. He walked downstairs and placed a pot of pasta with water and salt over the fire to cook while he put some ground beef into a skillet with onions and one garlic clove. As he let the food cook, he opened the book and looked at what she brought with her. He looked at the pictures of her mother and her aunt when they were little and even some of them had pictures of him when they became friends. It was all full of her childhood. All of the people that she knew where in this photo album with her and her sister. He closed the book with a snap and wiped the tears that were threatening to pour from his eyes. He sent the book back to her bag upstairs and continued with his cooking.

He finished up the meal and then walked up to Claudia's room. Once he walked into her room he found her tossing and turning in her bed from another nightmare. He ran to her side and lifted her into his arms; shaking her gently to wake her up from the nightmare, she snapped her eyes open and clung to Severus with all of her might as a scream tore from her throat. Her eyes were unfocused and sweat poured down from her forehead.

"Shhhh, Claudia, concentrate on my voice and nothing else. Listen to my voice and calm down, you can do it. I have you nothing will happen to you ever when you're here. I promise that I will protect you always. Please, just calm down." Claudia's breathing started to slow down and her eyes went back into focus.

She blinked a few time before she looked up at Severus with tears forming in her eyes. She was afraid that he would be mad at her. He pulled her into his arms tighter and held her close to his chest with all of the strength that he had without hurting her.

"Are you alright now?" He asked into her hair. She lowered her head and nodded her head.

"I'm sorry." She told him, looking at the buttons on his coat. He lifted her chin up with one hand and looked deep into her emerald green eyes.

"I will never be angry with you, I promise."

"You promise?"

Severus looked down at her with a small smirk on his lips and answered, "Always."

She looked at him with tears in her eyes and then threw her arms around his neck, holding on like he would disappear as soon as she would let go. He was shocked at first and soon he relaxed and wrapped his arms around her as well, holding her close. After a while, he pulled her away and told her that dinner was ready. He took her hand and they walked down the stairs together into the kitchen. Claudia sat in the same place that she sat the night before as Severus placed the plates in front of her as he sat down in his spot with his plate across from her. Severus reached for the plate of garlic bread and then handed it to her as he took his piece. The food smelled wonderful to her as she never smelled anything like it before. Her aunt never bought anything like this before and she never made anything like it.

Severus watched in amusement as she tried not to wolf down the food like she was starving for years. Severus walked over to the refrigerator and pulled out a pitcher of water. He walked over to one of the cabinets to the left of the sink and pulled out two tall glasses. He poured the water into each glass and placed the pitcher back into the refrigerator. He grabbed the glasses and walked back over to the table. Setting one glass in front of Claudia, he sat down with his glass and stare at her for a little while over his glass. He set it back down on the table and continued to eat.

After a while of eating in silence, Severus spoke up to her without looking at her, "What happened today when you tightened your grip on my robes and with the two nightmares?" Her fork was halfway up to her mouth when he asked her. She lowered her fork back to her plate and pushed it away from her.

She looked down at the hands that she just folded in front of her and answered, "I was afraid that all of this would be a dream and that I would wake back up in my cupboard under the stairs with my aunt screeching for me to wake up and start my day. I don't want to leave when I have just found people who are like me. Ever since I ran into you the first day that I came here and you took me in, I thought that you would beat me as well, but when you did the magic, I found out that I'm not the only one in the world that could strange things. I'm not the only kind like me; there are more people like me. I have never felt so wanted before and I was afraid that it was all fake. I didn't want this to end; to wake up in my room and find out that it was all untrue. It scares me." She whispered the last part so softly that Severus almost missed it.

Severus got up from his chair and walked over to the girl that was sitting in his kitchen. She looked up at him with her eyes shining with tears as he pulled her up from her chair and led her into the library. Severus sat in his chair by the fireplace and pulled her into his lap with his arms wrapped around her.

They sat there for a while before he finally said something to her, "I will never let anything happen to you. I will never let those people go near you or hurt you ever again. I will fight for you and will make sure that the Dark Lord or anyone that wants to harm you will never get close enough to hurt you."

"Who's the Dark Lord?"

Severus looked down at her with a sad look on his face and answered sadly, "He was the man that killed your parents."

She looked up at him in shock before answering, "But Aunt Petunia said that they died in a car crash and that's how I got my scar." She raised her hand to her forehead and felt her scar. He took her hand in his and kissed it.

"I'm sorry, but she lied to you. If I knew I would have told you what happened."

"Would you tell me everything?" 

Severus closed his eyes and gulped. "Some things… Some things are hard for me to talk about, but I will tell you things that I am not afraid to tell you." 

Severus sat there and told her everything that he knew about the Dark Lord and what happened the night of her parent's death and what her mother did for her. She sat there for the whole time as tears streamed down her face as he told her all that happened. At the end, she looked up at him and he looked down at her with tears in his eyes.

She threw her arms around him and held on tightly to him, never wanting to let go, "Thank you for telling me about what happened; for telling me the truth." She whispered in his ear.

He pulled her in closer for a hug and let out a soft sigh. Severus set her down on the floor and they both went up to bed forgetting about their unfinished dinner; not wanting to finish it really from the mood that they were in they couldn't finish it. Severus took her up to his room and knelt down by the nightstand to open the cabinet.

Pulling out a bottle, he resealed the door and stood back up saying, "I really shouldn't give this to you, but seeing as how many nightmares that you have been getting, this should help."

Severus handed her a tablespoon of the containment as she stood next to the bed. She looked at the red liquid and then swallowed it all in one go. After she finished it, she started to gag from the taste and her legs soon gave out from under her. Severus caught her in time before she hit the floor and laid her down on his bed. He wanted to keep her in his eye range to see how she responded to the Sleeping Draught. This was going to be a long night for him. He opened up the potion cabinet again and pulled out a Pepper-Up potion to help keep him away. He took the whole thing in one gulp and waited for the steam and his flushed face to settle back down. It was so much better than caffeine. Severus summoned his book that he was reading and sat in the chair next to the bed. The night went through with no problems at all.

When morning came, Claudia woke up happy for once. She looked around and saw that it was not her room or the room that she was given to sleep in, but Severus's. Why was she sleeping in Severus's? She looked over to see that he was reading in the chair next to her.

She smiled a soft smile at him, "Morning." She said quietly. Severus looked up from his book to see that she was awake.

"Good morning. I didn't think that you would be up so soon. How did you sleep, any nightmares?" She shook her head no and sat up in bed.

"Are you hungry?" He asked as he set his book to the side.

Before she got to answer, her stomach growled loudly which made Severus's eyes grow big at the sound. They both started to laugh at that and Severus took her by the hand to lead her down the stairs. Once they were down there, Severus cleared last night's dinner with his wand and set the dishes to clean themselves as he started on making breakfast.

"Why do you do things like non-magic people do instead of using your magic?" Claudia asked from the table. Severus looked at her over his shoulder and then back to the bacon and eggs that he was frying.

"I like to do it; it relaxes me to do so. All of the time using magic gets old and it makes me feel like I am always relying on it constantly. It makes me feel good that I can do things without magic. Some people think that I'm crazy to think that way, but it helps me remember that I am human and that I can do things without help."

Claudia nodded her head and said, "I see your point and I don't think that you're crazy. I would probably think the same way you do."

Severus finished breakfast and set two plates in front of them both. Just as she was about to start eating, an owl flew through the open window. Claudia held the fork halfway up to her open mouth when the bird flew in with what looked like a newspaper in is talons. Severus just took out some bronze coins and gave them to the bird as it held out its foot. With that, the bird flew out of the window leaving the paper behind. Severus picked it up and went back to eating not noticing that Claudia was still staring at what happened just a few moments ago in confusion and a little freaked out.

"Um, Severus?" She asked cautiously.

"Hmm?" He asked not looking up from the paper.

"What was that all about?" She asked him putting her fork back down.

Severus placed his paper down and looked at her in confusion. He then remembered that he didn't tell her about the mail system.

"Right, the mail system that I didn't tell you about. Well, you see all mail and news is delivered by owls. It's just how it goes in our world. There are other things that go on in our world that you will understand later on and I will tell you about as it comes up in time. I don't want to bombard you with all of the information all at once." He said. Claudia nodded her head and went back to eating her breakfast. Severus lifted up the newspaper again and started to eat his breakfast as he read. She looked at the front of the newspaper and saw a familiar face on it.

"I know that man," Claudia said not knowing that she said it out loud. Severus looked at her and then the front of the page.

Severus went pale a little and looked at her, "Where did you see him?"

"Yesterday while I was standing in front of the store that you found me at while you were shopping at the dark store, am I in trouble?" She asked a little scared.

"No, never at you. This man is just a very manipulating man. His name is Albus Dumbledore; he is the headmaster of the school that you will be going to this year. I want you to be careful with him while you are at school, I don't want him to fill your mind with things about our world. He is a very manipulative man, do you understand me?" He asked very seriously. She nodded her head because he now scared her, this man named Albus Dumbledore.

Severus nodded his head and reached across the table to take her hand into his. She looked up at him and into his dark eyes.

"I am not mad at you." He told her.

"I know, I'm just scared of this Albus Dumbledore. He seemed so nice at first, but the way that you describe him, it makes him seem like there is a darker side to him." Severus smiled a sincere smile and nodded his head. As soon as he was about ready to finish up with his breakfast, another owl came through the window. This one was a mean looking Screech-Owl with a letter tied to its leg. It landed gracefully next to Severus who took the letter and paid the bird two sickles. As the bird flew away, Severus opened up the seal to see that it was adoption papers. Down at the bottom was the signature of Petunia and Vernon Dursley giving up Claudia. Severus looked at the papers for a while and smiled a genuine smile.

He pulled out his wand, and soon a quill and a pot of ink flew through the air over to the table. He grabbed them from the air and placed them next to him as he moved his tea away. He uncorked the bottle and dipped the green quill into the pot before signing his name on the line down at the bottom.

With a flourishing movement, he signed quickly and then rolled up the paper and walked into the sitting room, "I'll be right back." He called over his shoulder. After a minute, there was a whooshing sound and then Severus walked back in.

Claudia looked at him questionably as he sat down across from her and he answered, "Claudia, that paper that was just here, it was adoption papers. It's not a permit fix with me if you do not want to stay with me, but it means that you will never have to go back to the Dursley's home. Now, if you do not want to stay with me and want to go to someone else, you can, but for now, you will be staying with me. Do you have any questions?"

She looked at him for a few minutes before asking, "What if I want to stay with you?"

He looked at her for a while gathering his thoughts together and then took a deep breath, "You can stay with me and we can draw up papers, but I want you to wait until the first school year is over with before you decide." She nodded her head at that a little stiff at what she was told. She was still processing it all in her mind.

"So how about we celebrate today. At lunch, we can go out into the town. There is a pond that a lot of the children in the area like to go to for a swim in the park area. We could have a picnic and you could go swimming. What do you say about that?" He asked leaning back in his seat with his arms crossed.

She looked up at him with a slight blush on her face, "I don't know how to swim." The smile on Severus' face vanished as he looked at her.

"Well; I can teach you if you want." She looked back up at him with delight written on her face.

"Wait; I don't have anything to swim in."

Severus smirked at that and then pulled his wand back out and started to twirl it in his fingers, "You are forgetting that I am a wizard that can do magic."

She looked at him and smiled. He smiled back at her and they went back to eating their breakfast. Afterwards, they went into the sitting room and sat by the fire to read. Severus was sitting in the Kelly Green armchair closes to the door leading to the kitchen, it seemed to be to his favorite chair in the room, reading his new potion book while Claudia sat in the other green chair across from him reading the book that he let her borrow. She had been so engrossed in that she never noticed when Severus got up from his chair and walked into the kitchen at around eleven o'clock. When he came back, he had a wooded weaved picnic basket with a green and white plaid picnic blanket sticking out.

"Are you ready?" He asked her. She jumped up when he spoke to her and dropped the book to the floor.

She quickly picked up the book and held it close to her, "I'm sorry."

He just shook his head and smiled, "Its fine, I just startled you and you didn't know."

She blushed a little with a sly smile on her face and placed the book down on the table. She walked over to him and watched as he changed his clothes into black jeans and a white dress shirt with the sleeves folded up halfway to his elbows so it still covered most of his dark mark that his father forced on to him. He changed her clothes to an emerald green knee-high flowy summer dress and white strapped light brown base sandals. She looked down and what she was wearing and spun around making the dress fly up a little, but not too high even though she had on a green bathing suit underneath.

She looked up at him and smiled, "How did you know green was my favorite color?"

"I didn't, it just seemed to go well with your eyes and now that I look at you, you look wonderful in green just like your mother." He told her with a smile.

She blushed at his words and smiled. Severus offered her his arm and she looped hers with his. They walked out the door and down the cobbled sidewalk in the morning sun and soon came to a dirt path under an iron gate. They walked through the gateway and into the park. After walking a little further away from the main park area, they came to a place with a bunch of trees.

"Here we are," Severus said as he pulled out the blanket and laid it down on the ground before sitting on it with the basket. Claudia sat down next to him as he pulled out a book that he brought with him. He opened it and inside was a maple leaf, but it was not an ordinary leaf, the leaf was blue with a white little flower attached to it.

"This came from the tree that your mother and I went to all of the time. We made it our little hiding place, it's only over there." He said pointing to the blue and white tree in the distance.

She looked over and saw that it was a willow tree with blue leaves and white flowers. She turned back to him and he nodded his head in the direction. She turned back to the tree and soon her feet started to take her over to the direction of the blue willow. She walked over to it faster than she thought that she would. Once she arrived at the tree, she looked around and saw what was carved into the tree. It was a heart that had Severus + Lily Forever carved inside. The way that she was able to see the heart and letters was because the letters were glowing in a blue metallic color. She placed her hand on the marking and ran it down as a blue light came from the heart and onto her fingers. She saw some of the memories of when her mother and Severus were little but took her hand away just as a hand was placed on her shoulder. She turned to see Severus standing behind her looking a little sad, but not towards her. She looked up at him and then wrapped her arms around him while burying her face into his shirt. He stumbled back a little and then wrapped his arms around her as well.

"I wanted to show you this since she was your mother."

"Thank you." She told him into his shirt. Severus pulled her away to look into her eyes and smiled. He led her back over to the picnic and sat down on the blanket with the basket next to him.

"Do you want to go swimming first or eat?"

Claudia thought about it for a minute and then answered, "Swimming."

Severus smiled at her and nodded, "Turn around so I can untie your dress." She did as she was told and Severus untied the belt so it would be easier to take off of her. She lifted the dress over her head and kicked off her sandals. Severus smirked at her and then proceeded to undress. This only left him in a pair of black swimming trunks. This was also the time when Claudia got a good look at him. His skin may have been pale, but it suits him along with his muscular form. Claudia turned to look at him and smiled.

He looked up at her and smiled back, "Well, ready?" He asked as he held out his hand to her.

She nodded and took it in hers. Severus led her over to the pond and right up to the edge. He lifted her up into his arms and proceeded into the water. Once he was waist deep in the water, he slowly lowered her down into the water, but never let go of her as she descended into the water. She clung to his arms as she watched the water come up around her. She tried not to panic seeing as how Severus had a hold of her and wasn't going to let anything happen to her. Once the water was up to her chest and her feet were on the underwater ground, Severus let go of her.

He got on his knees so he was her height and looked into her eyes, "Are you ok?"

She nodded her head and looked into his eyes with a smile. He smiled back at her and just held her there for a while to let her get used to the water. After about a half an hour, he told her it was time to eat and she was happy to get out of the water. Even though she was able to hold her wits together, she still didn't like the water. Severus pulled out of the basket; two sandwiches, a thermostat of lemonade, and two slices of apple pie with two forks. They sat there together while Severus told Claudia some stories about her mother when they were kids like how they first met and when they first went to Hogwarts together while they air dried before they got dressed again. As Severus was bringing his glass of lemonade up to his lips, Claudia saw the Dark Mark for the first time since Severus used a concealing charm on it to hide it from her.

"Severus?"

"Hmmm?" He asked as he took a drink.

"What's that on your arm?" Severus looked down at the mark and then clutched to it to try and hide it from her.

"It's a magical mark that my father made me get along with my brother to follow the Dark Lord." She looked at him in shock and in curiosity since this was the first time he ever made mention of his family.

"What happened?" She asked as she moved his hand gently away from the mark so she could see it.

He looked away from her as he started to explain, "While I was still at Hogwarts my last year, my mother passed on to the other life. When this happened, my father made my brother and I get the mark so we would stay close to him since he didn't want our family to fall apart more than it already did. My grandfather, my mother's father, blamed my father for her death and wanted to take us away from our father so our father made us get the mark so our grandfather couldn't take us seeing as how he is part of the light. Grandfather still fought for us even after the mark, but my brother went to the side of our father, but I wanted nothing to do with them and the stupid war so I left them all and started my own life."

Claudia hugged him and apologized to him for everything that he went through, "It's not your fault." He told her, but he still held her close liking the feel of the close connection to her.

After a while, when they were both dry, they redressed and Severus went back to his book while Claudia laid her head in his lap and fell asleep. Severus couldn't really concentrate on his book as his mind still wandered to the conversation that they just had. He petted her head and hair that fell over her shoulders as he sat there in thought and thought about the idea of his family coming back for him and them finding out about Claudia, the one who killed the Dark Lord.


	4. Chapter 4

It was about two months since the two of them were together when she showed up at the beginning of June, and they were getting along quite nicely. Severus was able to get Claudia's birthday gifts into the house without her finding out. He talked with Minerva and told her about the quill set that she was looking at and she was able to retrieve it for him and send the book and the quill to her. Tomorrow was a big day for the small household seeing as how it was to be her birthday. Claudia had no idea about the surprise that was to be held for her. She, however, did the same tradition that she did every night for her birthday, she stayed up until midnight and waited for the clock to chime, indicating it was the next day. When the great grandfather clock chimed for the time, she wished herself a happy birthday not really caring if Severus knew or not that it was her birthday.

The next morning followed in the same way. She got up at six, made her bed, got dressed, and then head downstairs to the kitchen. Severus was already down there, as usual, making breakfast as he did every morning, but when he turned around with a plate of stacked pancakes in his hands that was surprising, but the candles in the cakes forming the number eleven was even more surprising. He set the plate in front of her and pulled out his wand lighting each candle a different color.

"Happy birthday, Claudia." He said as he pulled out the two wrapped packages in emerald green paper with silver ribbons holding the paper closed.

He pushed the stack closer to her and whispered, "Make a wish." She closed her eyes and thought really hard about what she wanted. When she opened her eyes up again, she blew the candles out in one blow.

"What did you wish for?" He asked.

"I can't tell or else it won't come true." She said with a smile.

"Well whatever it was, it will come true; you blew out all of the candles in one blow. That's good luck for your wish to come true." He told her all serious like and then he smiled at her.

She smiled back at him, "So what kind of pancakes did you make?" She asked as she handed her plate over to him when he held his hand out for it.

"Apple pancakes, they were your mother's favorite." He said as he took the plate from her.

"There mine too. Whenever I would make them, what batter was left was mine to make, and apple was always my favorite."

Severus handed her plate back to her with three of them on there with the homemade maple syrup. They went to their eating and Severus sat there thinking about what she could have wished for. Out of all the things he couldn't think of what her wish could be. This was going to bother him until he found out to see if maybe he could make it possible for her to get her wish. He wanted to do whatever she wanted and not just because she was Lily's daughter, but because he started to grow to care for her as well. He always wanted to help children just like his mother did and he also wanted children himself, but the only person he loved turned away from him and married the only person that hated him.

He sighed a silent sigh and went back to eating as he thought to himself, "This is the only way I can repay Lily."

After the two of them finished eating, Severus sent the dishes to clean themselves and then grabbed the two boxes. He took Claudia's hand and led her to the sitting room. He sat down in his chair and then pulled Claudia up into his lap. She was still very small even though he was giving her nutrient and vitamin potions and making sure she was eating right, but she was still little as ever. She did grow a few inches so there was still hope that she would get to her height and weight that matched her age.

Severus handed her the book first to her and looked into her eyes. She smiled up at him and then back down at the gift. She slowly pulled the ribbon undone and let the paper fall away. There her eyes met the book that she saw in the store. She looked up at him and him down at her.

"It's a magic diary. Whatever you write, it will store in and it can even write back to you. So if you need advice on anything or just want someone to talk to, it can write back to you. It can also answer any question you want like if you want to know where I am, it can tell you and even show you." He told her.

She looked up at him in amazement and then back down at the book. Severus then handed her the other package and she opened it as well. When the paper fell away she saw the wooden box that was wrapped. She opened it to reveal the quill set that she saw in the window of the writing store.

"I had Professor McGonagall get it for me. She also got the book as well so really they're from the both of us, but I do have something for you that is just from me." He reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a little silver locket with an emerald center that had silver leaves on the right side of the emerald and a little silver bird that could move freely on the chain.

She took it in her hands and looked into the emerald for a while, "It was my mothers." He said. "I charmed it so that way we can talk to each other through our minds. It doesn't matter how far away we are, we'll still be able to hear each other if anything happens. The way to activate it is to say Grá. The thing that I have that I can use is my ring." He showed her his hand that had a silver snake that was wrapped around his finger with a little emerald in the top of its head. It wasn't scary, but more like cute.

He took the necklace and placed it around her neck and hooked it. "Now only you and I can take off the necklace or the ring. If anyone else tries, they wouldn't be able to. The reason why is because it's connected to us. This can also help us find each other because not only can we hear each other's thoughts, but we can also see, hear, feels, smell, and taste what the other is. This is supposed to keep you safe from danger as long as you are with me." She looked up at him and then wrapped her arms around his neck.

"No one has ever cared for me like this. No one has ever cared for me ever."

Severus was shocked a little and then wrapped his arms around her back. Just as the mood could last any longer, an owl flew through the room and landed on the arm of the chair that they were sitting in. It wasn't as scary as some of the owls that Claudia has seen since this was a regular brown barn owl that flew in. In its beak was a letter with green writing on the front of it. On the front was addressed to Claudia Potter with Severus's address on the front. She took the letter from the owl and it flew away. She turned over to see the seal that was on the front of her book that she had been rereading. She opened the envelope and pulled out the letter that was inside,

HOGWARTS SCHOOL  
of WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY  
Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore  
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc. Chef. Warlock,  
Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)  
Dear Miss Potter,  
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.  
Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.  
Yours sincerely,  
Minerva McGonagall,  
Deputy Headmistress  
Claudia pulled out the other paper that came with the letter and saw that it was the list.  
HOGWARTS SCHOOL  
of WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY  
UNIFORM  
First-year students will require:  
1\. Three sets of plain work robes (black)  
2\. One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear  
3\. One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)  
4\. One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)  
Please note that all pupil's clothes should carry name tags  
COURSE BOOKS  
All students should have a copy of each of the following:  
The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) by Miranda Goshawk  
A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot  
Magical Theory by Adalberta Waffling  
A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch  
One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore  
Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsemius Jigger  
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander  
The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Trimble  
OTHER EQUIPMENT  
1 wand  
1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)  
1 set of glass or crystal vials  
1 telescope  
1 set brass scales  
Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad  
PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWS THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS

"A toad, why in the world would someone bring a toad?" Claudia asked while scrunching up her nose.

Severus chuckled at her and answered, "You would be surprised about what people would do and bring with them."

"Personally, I would get the owl. A day with Miss Figgs and her twenty million cats is enough for me."

"Miss Figgs?" Severus asked.

"Ya, she was one of my neighbors." She answered.

"She's also a Squib," Severus told her.

"A what?" Claudia asked.

"A Squib, it's someone from a magical family that can't do magic," Severus explained.

"I never knew that. Ironic that she was living down the street from me and that she would take me in whenever the Dursleys went out and had to leave me." Claudia said deep in thought.

"Truthfully I think she was placed there by Albus to watch over you. Now that you're not there, she has no job anymore and she can live on with her life and not have to worry about the dangers of this war." Severus said.

Claudia nodded her head and then looked back at the list in her hand. "So when and where can we get all of this?" She was really excited to start school at this place and she couldn't wait to actually be able to start learning magic like her family.

"We can go today and we can get it all at Diagon Alley which is hidden in Muggle London."

Claudia looked up at him confused. "So there are magical placed hidden in the Muggle world?" Claudia asked while trying to wrap it around her mind as the thought of the Muggles finding the wizards and what they would do to them.

"Exactly, we hide in plain sight so that the Muggles can't find us."

"That sounds like a story I read from a Sherlock Holmes book." Severus looked at her confused.

"I would sneak off to the library when I was little to read and get away from Dudley." She explained. "Sherlock Holmes was my personal favorite to read because I liked the mysteries. They never really came out like I thought they would when I first started, but after rereading them a million times, I soon figured out how everything fell into place." Severus nodded his head at that but was still wondering what she meant that the idea of hiding magical places in plain sight.

"What did you mean about the whole plain in sight thing reminded you of Sherlock Holmes?"

"One of the stories was about the queen that had a letter she didn't want her husband finding out and this one person had taken it and was using it as blackmail so she hired Sherlock to find it since none of her people could find it on him. When Sherlock went in, he found it and the reason no one could find it was because it was in plain sight only turn inside out." She answered him.

Severus understood what she meant by the story and while he thought of it, it did sound like what they were doing. At lunchtime, the two of them flooed to the Leaky Cauldron. Severus gracefully landed and stepped out of the fireplace and was then followed by Claudia stumbling out and lading on her backside. Severus helped her up and brushed the soot off of each other.

He led them into the main room of the dining room that was filled with loud chattering, "Tom, do you think I can get a shot of Fire Whiskey?" Severus asked as he walked to the counter at the front of the room.

The older man behind the counter turned to look at Severus and smiled showing off the few teeth that he had. "Sure thing, Professor Snape." The man said as he turned to get the drink.

"And a glass of milk as well for my accompanist," Severus said as he sat at one of the stools and lifted Claudia up to the one next to him. When Tom turned around to place the drinks on the counter he leaned in close to Claudia and saw the lightning bolt scar on her forehead.

"Blimey, it's Claudia Potter!" He exclaimed. The loud room fell silent when Tom said her name. Everyone in the room turned to look at her and Claudia tried to make herself as small as possible.

Severus saw this and pulled her over into his lap, "Now don't you all think about coming over here and start swarming her or else I will hex you all. If you want to see her, then you can all walk up here and have a decent conversation with her and not one praising her for something she doesn't even remember." Severus hissed at them all.

Everyone looked at them in fear and only one man walked up to them with a top hat on top of his head that he took off and was starting to wring it nervously in his hands, "Miss Potter, I don't know if you remember me, but the name is Dedalus Diggle."

Claudia pulled her face farther away from Severus's shirt and she looked over that the man. She looked at him for a while before answering, "You bowed to me once in a shop."

The man soon had tears in his eyes and he soon started to cry. "She remembers me!" He exclaimed. The other soon got up and made their way over to her and shook her hand telling her about how it was a pleasure to finally meet her. She was a little freaked out about the whole thing and kind of confused about what she did to please the people. Soon, one man walked up to her looking pale and he was very nervous.

Severus sighed annoyingly at that man, "Professor Quirrell, what a surprise." He said in a deadpan voice.

"P-P-Professor S-S-Snape." He said nodding his head. He then turned to Claudia, "M-M-Miss P-P-Potter," he stammered out, "c-can't t-tell you how p-pleased I am to meet you."

"Hello, Professor, what kind of magic do you teach?" She asked.

"I t-teach,"

"He teaches Defense Against the Dark Arts." Severus interrupted while staring daggers at the man. Claudia saw the look in Severus's eyes and was wondering what was wrong. She would ask him later when a lot of people weren't looking at them like at home.

Severus pulled Claudia closer to him and said loudly so all could hear him, "We better get going to get your school supplies." He got up from the stool and placed her on the ground where he proceeded to lead her out the back. 

"And that is why I needed the drink."

There they came to a stone wall where Severus pulled out his wand and tapped on the wall in two placed.

The wall fell away to show an area that was filled with different buildings, "Welcome to Diagon Alley." Severus said and pushed her inside so that none of the people from inside of the building could come and follow them into the place. If everyone in that alley knew that she was back, it would be a mass mob and who knew what followers would be there that belonged to the Dark Lord. Severus pushed her inside and let her look around at all of the different things in the area. She saw all different wonders in the place before she was led to one of the stores where she found out that it was another bookstore. This one was a little bit bigger than the last one that she was at, and she was thrilled about the idea of more books.

"We're here for your books for school, but if you see anything else," She was soon gone into the store in a flash that Severus didn't even see what direction she went in. "We can get it." He finished and then sighed.

He wasn't going to have enough to get the rest of her things if she kept this up with books. Severus went to look for her, but he soon gave up and went looking for new books for himself since he just finished the two that he got last time. As he was walking to the Potion and Dark Arts sections, he passed the Muggle section and soon walked back over to them.

He looked around to make sure no one was there and walked into the aisle. He looked through the section and found a book with the complete collection of Sherlock Holmes. He grabbed the book and started to make his way out of the aisle when he ran into someone with a lot of books. The person fell to the floor and all of the books fell around them. Severus looked down and saw that it was Claudia.

"Really?" He asked while raising one eyebrow at her.

She smiled at him with a sheepish smile as she started to blush. He shook his head with a smile as he gave her his hand to take so he could help her off of the grown. He then used his wand to collect all of her books that she picked up. As they flew into his arms one at a time he looked at all the titles to see what she was getting. Not only did she get her school books for the year, but she also got more books advanced in all of her courses along with more history books. He noticed that she had found books on the four Hogwarts Founders.

"Is there some reason that you got all of these books?" He asked with a raised eyebrow, but an amused smile on his face.

"The shelves in my room look empty." She said looking small and innocent, but with a mischievous smile on her face.

Severus smirked down at her and said, "We can fill them with more than just books you know. Think of all of the items you will find here like little figurines and a jewelry box to place all of your treasures in from all of the adventures that you will go on, and I know you will have some; all students do when they go to Hogwarts." He summoned a basket and placed the books in it when it flew over to them. He took her hand and they walked around the bookstore some more looking for more books that they could get. She was so much like her mother when it came to books.

The two of them made their way out of the bookstore after paying for the books and Severus pushed her over to Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions, "Next is your school robes."

"What all do we need to get from here?" Claudia asked as she was shoved through the door into the building. "Well, we need to get you three sets of plain black work robes; one plain black pointed hat; and one black winter cloak with a silver fastening," Severus said as he pulled out the list and started to read off all of the necessary things that she would need.

"Why Severus, how are you?" A squat, smiling woman made her way over to them.

"Hello, Madam Malkin, I am doing well, and yourself?"

"Oh cheerful as ever." She answered him.

"And who do we have here, Hogwarts, dear?"

"Yes, ma'am," Claudia answered with a short nod.

"Got the lot here—another young man being fitted up just now, in fact." She said as she led Claudia to the back, "You stay here Severus." Madam Malkin called over her shoulder.

Severus sat down in the window seat and pulled out one of the new books that he bought for himself and the first one he pulled out was the Sherlock Holmes book. He ran his fingers down the front of it before opening and started to read. In the back of the shop, a boy with a pale, pointed face was standing on a footstool while a second woman pinned up his long black robes. Madam Malkin stood Claudia on a stool next to the boy while she slipped on a long robe over her head, and also began to pin it to the right length.

"Hello," He said, "Hogwarts, too?"

"Yes," Claudia told him.

"My father's next door buying my books and mother's up the street looking at wands," he said. He had a bored, drawling voice. "Then I'm going to drag them off to look at racing brooms. I don't see why first years can't have their own. I think I'll bully father into getting me one and I'll smuggle it in somehow." This boy was starting to remind her of Dudley and it was starting to bring on some bad memories. "Have you got your own broom?" He continued.

"No," Claudia said with an uneasy smile.

"Play Quidditch at all?" He continued even more.

"Well no." She answered locking that piece of information away to ask Severus later.

"I do—Father says it's a crime if I'm not picked to play for my house, and I must say, I agree. Know what house you'll be in yet?" He asked once he finished talking about himself.

"No, but I do hope for either Slytherin or Gryffindor, but Severus says that I'll probably be in Ravenclaw from how much I read." She answered glad that she knows something to not sound like a complete idiot.

"You know Severus?" The boy asked.

"Yes, why?"

"It's nothing. Anyways, no one really knows what house they will be in until they get there, do they, but I know I'll be in Slytherin, all our family has been—imagine being in Hufflepuff, I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?" He asked as his eyes got wide and he leaned in some.

"Well, I don't think it would be all that bad," Claudia said.

"Really?" He asked as if she insulted him.

Claudia was about to answer when he interrupted her, "Well anyways, you're staying with Severus?" Claudia nodded her head.

"What happened to your parents, I know he doesn't have kids because he was only in love once and that was with a Mudblood and she died." He said.

"They passed a long time ago." She said a little sad.

"Oh, sorry." He said not sounding like he really meant it. "But they were our kind, weren't they?"

"They were a witch and a wizard if that's what you mean." She answered him really not liking him.

"I really don't think they should let the other sort in, do you? They're just not really the same, they've never even heard of Hogwarts until they get the letter, imagine. I think they should keep it in the old Wizarding families. What's your surname, anyways?" He asked.

Before Claudia could answer, Madam Malkin said, "That's you done, my dear." Claudia hopped down from the stool glad that she could end the conversation.

"Well see you at Hogwarts, I suppose." The boy said in a drawling voice. Claudia went to the front with the woman to meet up with Severus. He looked up at them as they entered.

"Done already?" He asked as he marked his place and put the book back in the bag.

"Yep," Claudia said as she bounced over to Severus happy to see him seeing as how that was the longest she has ever been away from him since she came to live with him besides sleeping of course.

"The robes should be ready in a few days and then I can owl them for you. If you would leave your address with us I can put it with the others."

Severus did and they soon walked out of the place with the bags of books shrunken down. Severus looked down at his quiet, small girl and could tell something was bothering her.

"You hungry?"

She looked up at him and nodded a little. He smiled a soft smile and led her over to Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour where he proceeded to order a turtle sundae for the two of them and grabbed the two silver spoons. As they sat down at one of the tables, Claudia only really played with her side of the food.

Severus watched as he took one bite and then asked, "Alright, what's bothering you?"

"It's nothing really, just a boy from the last shop. What's a Mudblood?" Severus dropped his spoon at the name.

"Where did you learn that?" He asked a little harsher than necessary.

Claudia flinched back a little at the tone, but answered, "The boy from the shop. I'm sorry, I didn't know it was a bad word." She said as tears started to form in her eyes.

"It's fine." Severus said as he softened his features, "It's another word for a Muggle-born, but it's a bad word. It's supposed to be saying that they have dirty blood because they have muggle parents. How did that come up? He didn't call you that, did he?"

"No, he asked me about my parents and why I was staying with you because he said he knew that you never married so you couldn't have kids because the only person you loved was a Muggle-born and she passed away." Severus looked down and answered, "It's true, I was in love with your mother." Claudia looked shocked at him.

When she was about to ask more questions, he held up his hand for her to be silent, "We will talk about this later; for right now eat. This ice cream will melt before I even get close to getting done." He told her with a smile as he picked up his own spoon.

After a few more minutes of silence, Claudia spoke up, "You should really get some real dishes and silverware." She said never looking up at him. He stopped with his spoon halfway up to his mouth.

"Is there a problem with what I already have?" He asked with a raised eyebrow and placed his spoon down.

"Well, most of the plates and bowls are chipped and the silver is tarnished to the point it can't be clean." She said looking at him through her eyelashes.

"Well they were supposed to just be temporary, I had gotten them cheap when I first moved into my home and the previous owners didn't take care of them, but it seems since where here, I think I should get some new ones." He said. "I've been meaning to get a new set." He said as he brought a spoonful of the ice cream up to his mouth.

Claudia smiled and shook her head as she also went back to the ice cream. After they finished, they made their way to Gregory's House Hold Magical Furniture and Other Necessary Items.

"Talk about a long name, but at least it gets the point across," Claudia said looking up at the sign that was shown on a silver platter.

"Well, he gets his point across." He said as he shuffled her inside. Once they were inside, Claudia was met with a very fit man with blondish brown hair and bright, happy blue eyes. He flashed them a smile that showed off his perfect white teeth. He didn't seem like the person who thought highly of himself, but rather it was a warmer welcoming type of smile.

"Severus, nice to see you again." The man said.

"The same to you as well, Gregory," Severus said as he gave the man a nodded of his head with a small smile.

"Who would this lovely lady be?" He asked as he came around from his counter to welcome them.

"This is Claudia as in Lily's daughter." The man looked at her a little shocked and then looked sadly at her.

"Hello, my lady. My you look like her." He told.

"You knew my mother?" She asked as she looked up at the man.

"Yes, yes I did. I went to school with her and Severus here." She looked up at Severus as for an explanation.

"Gregory was in my grade at Hogwarts yet he was in Ravenclaw. We use to study together in the library while we were at school. Just because we were in different houses didn't mean that we had to not be friends." Claudia nodded her head as to tell him that she understood.

"So, what can I help you with?" He asked Severus as his smile came back to his face.

"We're here for new plates and silver." He told him.

"And possibly some new glasses and mugs." Claudia put in.

Severus looked down at her, "What's wrong with them?" He asked sounding a little insulted.

"Well they are kind of chipped and some are even broken." She said as she shrugged her shoulders.

He sighed and turned back to look at him, "That too." Severus said.

"Man, you've really been holding back on getting new things. Sounds like you need new everything in your kitchen."

"Well when you don't have time, you don't have time." Gregory shook his head at the man and then led them over to the kitchen supplies.

"I think I have just the set for you." He said as he led them over to a cabinet that held the complete set. Inside showed four plates with one representing one of the four houses of Hogwarts. The silver was decorated with the head of the mascot of each house and the eyes were gems with the color of each house. The wine glasses were etched with the house crest and then painted to the colors. "There are four plates, forks, spoons, knives, and glasses, but seeing as how this is a magical world, they can multiply, clean themselves, and go back to their original number for easy storage."

"I think I would use them more for special occasions, but I'll take them. Do you have anything more casual?" He asked.

Gregory nodded and he steered them over to a display that held about four dark green plates and four sets of silver silverware. There were four tall glasses and the coffee mugs were a dark green like the plates and were also a set of four.

"Do these fit your taste?" He asked with a smile. Severus smirked and then nodded his head.

"Alright, so you now have two new sets of dishes. Anything else?" Gregory asked as he gathered the two sets together.

"No, that's everything." Gregory nodded and then checked them out. The two sets weren't as much as he thought they were going to be, thanks to the fact Gregory gave him a discount since they were old friends like he was going to tell Severus that, and he and Claudia walked out of the store with two new sets of dining ware.

"So, are you ready for your wand?" He asked her as they made their direction to Ollivanders.

"Yes, but I am a little nervous." She said making sure that she used correct language seeing as how Severus didn't like it when she used improper words as he puts it, saying that was never how her mother talked and she wanted to be like her. As they made their way over to the narrow, shabby store with peeling gold letters over the door and they read, Ollivanders: Maker of Fine Wands since 382 B.C. with a single wand laying in a faded purple cushion in the dusty window. A bell tinkled as they opened the door to step inside the tiny place that seemed empty except for a single, spindly chair by the counted which Severus sat in and pulled Claudia up into his lap. She felt like she was in some strict library from the silence of the room that she pushed herself in closer to Severus. She looked around at the thousands of narrow boxes piled neatly right up to the ceiling. The back of her neck soon started to prickle for some unknown reason. The dust and the silence in the room seemed to tingle with some secret magic.

"Good afternoon," someone said with a soft voice.

Both Claudia and Severus jumped at the sound of the voice, and Severus stood from the chair as he placed Claudia down on the ground. An old man was standing in front of them with wide, pale eyes that shined like moons through the gloomy looking shop.

"Hello," Claudia said softly and quietly.

"Ah yes," the man said. "Yes, yes. I thought I'd be seeing you soon. Claudia Potter even though somehow it's not really the name that was given to you." It wasn't a question. "You have your mother's eyes and some of her looks along with your father's to be the perfect blend. It seems only yesterday that they were both here. Your mother a ten and a quarter inch long, swishy, made of willow. Nice for charm work. While James was a mahogany wand. Eleven inches. Pliable. A little more power and excellent for transfiguration. He favored it—it's really the wand that chooses the wizard of course. Now Severus here was a special case. Ebony, eleven inches, sturdy, and a very unusual combination of cores. I made it never thinking someone would buy it, but he has phoenix feather to learn most varied magic, dragon heartstring to be powerful and learn spells easily, and unicorn hair to make it easy to attach to the owner. The combination is hard to adopt together and he is the only one I could ever create perfectly and on my first try. I guess that's what happens when you play with magic drunk on fire whiskey. It came out to be a very powerful wand possibly more powerful than the Elder Wand itself. Well enough of that, let's find you your wand." He said as he started to pull down boxes from the shelf.

Severus was shocked to hear what Ollivander had said about his wand being more powerful than the Elder Wand and the only one that had all three cores inside. He sat back down on the chair and Ollivander pulled wands out and started handing them over to Claudia. He watched numbly as she was given wand after wand after wand to try, after she was measured, to only have them snatched out of her hand. He saw her start to panic as the wands started to pile up and Ollivander excited to see the many wands piled on top of each other.

"Very trick we seem to be, not to worry though I think I have an idea. It's an unusual combination—holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches, nice and supple." She took the wand from him and a sudden warmth in her fingers formed. She raised the wand above her head and brought it swishing down through the dusty air and a stream of red and gold sparks shot from the end like fireworks, throwing dancing spots of light on to the wall. Mr. Ollivander cried, "Oh bravo! Yes, indeed, oh, very good. Well, well, well…how curious…how very curious…" He put her wand back into its box and wrapped it in brown paper, still muttering, "Curious…curious…"

"Sorry," Claudia spoke up, "but what's curious?"

Mr. Ollivander turned to fix her with his pale stare. "I remember every wand I've ever sold, Miss Potter. Every single wand. It so happens that the phoenix whose tail feather is in your wand gave another feather—just one other. It is very curious indeed that you should be destined for this wand when its brother—why, its brother gave you that scar." He said as he placed a bony finger over her scar as he spoke the words.

"Yes, thirteen-and-a-half inch. Yew. Curious indeed how these things happened. The wand chooses the wizard, remember….I think we must expect great things from you, Miss Potter….After all, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did great things—terrible, yes, but great."

She soon started to tremble a little for she didn't know how much she liked him now. Severus paid the seven gold Galleons for the wand, and Ollivander bowed then from his shop. They made their way down the street to Slug and Jiggers Apothecary where Severus bought all of her things that she was going to need. They didn't stay for very long because Claudia didn't really like the place. They were finally done with all of the school shopping for the year. Just as they were walking out of the shop, they ran into a very large man. Just as they were falling, two big hands flew out and caught them before they fell.

"Professor Snape, sorry 'bout that. Didn' see ya there."

"Hagrid," Severus said with a nod of his head.

"I see that ya got Claudia." The tall man with the bushy black hair and black warm eyes said.

"Yes, so it seems." He said dryly. "So what are you doing here?" He asked the giant.

"Here on Hogwarts business."

"You mean for the…" He trailed off as he looked over at Claudia.

"Yes, sir. Albus sent me."

"Well then be careful. Lucky for me, I didn't have to take her to Gringotts. I didn't want her around the goblins." Severus said as a matter of factly.

"Goblins?" Claudia asked a little scared.

"You didn't tell her?" Hagrid asked with his wide eyes.

"I didn't tell her yet. I didn't want to bombard her with everything at once. I was telling her everything as they came up so she could understand it better." He said looking at the giant to dare him to question his choices of the ideas.

"Well, it makes sense," Hagrid said.

"Well, I shouldn't keep you from your work." And with that, they walked away.

When they were out of earshot of the man, Claudia asked the question, "Who was that?"

"Hagrid, he's the groundskeeper. He makes sure everything is in order around the school."

"He seems nice," Claudia said taking Severus's hand into her smaller one.

Severus looked down at her and smirked, "He is, just it gets him in trouble sometimes." She nodded her head as to tell him that she understood.

After a few more moments of silence, Claudia spoke up again, "What's the Elder Wand?" Severus stopped dead in his tracks and had that distance look in his eyes.

"I think the story would be better. I'll be back."

He made a beeline for the bookstore again and went to the children's book section where he picked up the book that he was looking for. He went up to the store clerk and bought the book. When he came back out, Claudia was gone. Severus frantically looked all over the place for his missing girl that he almost didn't see the crowd going into the music store. He made his way over and heard the most beautiful piano music being played. It was the sound of one of the Muggle fantasy movies of a knight on his rescue to save the one he loves with the slow and soft parts and then fast and pounding parts and all of the notes seemed to be in the middle to high pitch range. Soon the one song ended and another began. This one sounded like a knight riding on his horse to his destination well at least that what Severus pictured. He made his way in and pushed his way up to the form of the crowd and there he saw Claudia, his Claudia, sitting at a cherry stained wood piano playing the most beautiful music he has ever heard. While he was dazed by the music, he never heard her stop or saw her make her way over to him until he felt her hand wrapping around his. He looked down at her and saw her looking up at him. Everyone around them started to go their own way when she had stopped playing.

He got down on his knees and looked her in the eyes as he gently grabbed her shoulders, "Where did you learn to play like that?"

"One of the neighbors taught me when the Dursleys were gone. She was an elderly lady that I helped carry her bags into her house for and then I saw her piano and so she taught me how to play for free for years to thank me for helping her and so I would help her around with a lot of things when my aunt and uncle would leave or kick me out of the house. She knew what was going on at home, but I told her not to tell. She later moved away about five years ago, actually, to Spinners End."

"What's her name?" Severus asked.

"Mrs. McCoy." She answered.

Severus smirked, "I know who she is and she is also a witch, but a neutral one. She probably didn't know who you were at first, but then when you told her she must have known. She lives right down the street from me and we happen to be good friends. I should invite her over for tea." He said more to himself than to Claudia.

"Can we?" She asked excitedly.

"Of course, but first, it looks like I have a piano to buy along with some books." He said with a smile as he made his way to the front not seeing the blond family that was in the crowd watching them. The head of the small family whispered one word as he watched in shock of who he was seeing, "Severus."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The songs that Claudia is playing on the piano are by a pianist named Isaac Shepard. The first is Following the Footsteps and the second is A Knight to the Rescue.

**Author's Note:**

> Ok this is the end of chapter one. If you want to read more PLEASE LEAVE ME A REVIEW. Even if it's just one I will put up the second chapter seeing how it's done.


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